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Wheal Magdalen Mine, Cornwall

Principal ores: TIN

Gwennap: grid reference SW765377

Location: Wheal Magdalen is an ancient mine, it dates from at least 1522, when it was described as 'Mary Mawdlyn, producing tin'. It lies just to the east of the Truro to Falmouth railway branch line, just to the south of Frog Hill, one third of a mile east of the village of Ponsanooth.

The mine worked three main lodes and a reverse direction, or caunter lode. These were: North Lode, Middle Lode, South Lode and Caunter Lode. It worked on and off through the years, reopening in about 1800. One such venture ceased work in 1921, but the mine was at work again in 1926.

Very little else is known about Wheal Magdalen although it is reported that a 'Miss Lidgey', of Rough Street, Lanner, managed the mine at some time in the past. There are no records of output.

There is one piece of unusual information about the Inn at Ponsanooth however. The pub is called the 'Stag Hunt' and it is said to be named after the event that took place in 1805, when an exhausted stag fell into a mine shaft pursued by a pack of hounds.